


Nerd Crush

by AceAsADHD



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: M/M, some is way to perceptive, someone has a crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 12:10:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16017641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceAsADHD/pseuds/AceAsADHD
Summary: What was Virgil's inspiration to become an engineer? Unfortunately for Virgil, John's about to find out.





	Nerd Crush

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short finished unpublished story I had lying around

Virgil came out of his bathroom and crossed his room to find his underwear in his dresser. He was deciding when he heard a rustle of paper from his bed. He turned to see John reading one of Virgil's old exercise books from the box at the top of his bookshelf. The pile next to him suggested he had been flipping through them like gossip magazines.

John didn't seem to notice Virgil's staring, so Virgil continued to get dressed because it was totally normal for his astronaut brother to invade his privacy. 

"So, John, what brings you down here?" Virgil asked casually, selecting his boxers.

John looked up from his book, "Alan says Scott's making wings for dinner."

"Well, that explains why you’re in my room." Virgil slipped on his jeans and headed for the closet. 

"Oh, this." John exclaimed holding up the notebook in his hand, "This is because Gordon and Alan asked who Dr Hiraim K Hackenbacker was. I had to check we were talking about the same person."

Virgil paused, “They don't know who Dr Hackenbacker is?"

John smiled, "Do you remember Mac from school?"

Virgil racked his brain, "No, I don't think we had a Mac, was he in your grade?"

"You'll probably remember him as George."

"Oh yeah, George. That's right; we called him that for three years before he told us we had gotten his name wrong."

"Yeah, well I'm sure that is what has happened to the terrible two."

Virgil sat next to John on the bed and picked up one the books, "I let Alan look for my art pencils while I was out and I'm guessing Gordon used that time to snoop."

"Mm." John hummed and started to put the exercise books back in the box.

Virgil ran his thumb down the spine of the book he was holding. It was old, and the cover was flaking, "You're not going to ask?"

John wobbled his head a bit, "I can see that what you were doing in dissecting the papers, adding your notes for understanding. The different coloured pens say you came back to them a few times when you seemed to understand a bit more."

Virgil nodded.

"Or do you mean, why do you have an unmarked box full of Brains' papers on the top of your bookshelf, partially hidden behind a photo of Thunderbird Two?" John placed the last of them back, "You don't have to tell me anything. I will warn you though Gordon will want some explanation, especially when he cottons on to who Dr Hackenbacker is."

"You'll laugh at me."

"Pinky promise I won't."

Virgil dragged his eyes away from the cover long enough to shake pinkies with John, "I didn't just do it to Brains' stuff; it was just the only stuff I kept. It was an exercise for uni, to see how much I was learning."

John hummed in understanding, “But you had an attachment to Brains’ papers.”

"Do you remember when I was in high school and all I wanted to do was become an auto mechanic?"

John laughed, "God, dad had a fit when you told him."

Virgil smiled at that memory, "Yeah, I guess I missed the memo that said 'you can do whatever you want' had changed to 'you can do what Dad wants'."

"Then he took you into work to talk to you and then the next day you were enrolling in every subject that would get you into M.I.T."

"Mm," Virgil hummed, "That is true, but it's not the whole story. It was just easier to let everyone think that it was Dad who changed my mind."

"So what's the whole story?"

"So Dad took me into work, but he didn't show me any projects or anything like that; he took me into the boardroom and gave me The Pitch."

"The Pitch?"

Virgil laughed, "I guess, looking back, he was selling me International Rescue without actually saying those words. It was all 'think of how your choices will affect your future' and 'this company is built around family values'. At the time I was so mad at him; It took me years of going to boring functions to not walk out of there. "

"I'm glad those functions were good for something, apart from publicity." John bumps Virgil's shoulder.

"He had another meeting to get to so he left me with a 'Just think about it' and then walked out."

John winched.

"But then I spotted this on the table," Virgil opened the book to where the original paper was stabled, "It caught my attention because I recognised the name from when Scott was telling me about Dad’s newest scientist, so I picked it up and started reading. I understood maybe every third word, including the ands, ifs and buts. So I took it home and looked up a bunch of the terminology online; I don't think I slept that night. I went to school the next morning and walking into the careers advisor and told him I would do anything to be able to understand that paper. He looked it up and said Dr Hackenbacker was an engineer and helped me move subjects."

"So it was this paper that changed your mind?" John flick through the pages, "Do you regret it?"

"Sometimes, some rescues make me wish I had opened a car shop away from all this. On the other hand, if I did and knew I could have saved even just one person, yeah no I'm good here. Besides, Thunderbird Two is the coolest thing on the planet; I won't trade in for any BMW."

"Only because Five is in space." Virgil ruffled John's hair for that, "Have you told Brains about this?"

"Oh yes, I said 'Brains, I have academically staked you since you joined Tracy Enterprises please sign my book'.” Virgil rolled his eyes, “Because can imagine that would go down well."

"Hmm." John squinted at him.

"What?"

"You're in love with him aren't you?"

"No." Virgil tried to get the book from John, but John's longer reach meant he couldn't.

"I think one doth protest too much." John stood up and moved away from the bed.

"John Glenn Tracy!"

"You know not even Scott uses our full names when he's angry, it's only you." John starts backing up.

"Then you know I'm angry, so give me back my book."

John hit the door, "You know, I think I've been down here long enough to get my earth legs back, want to go for a run?"

"I just got back from a mission..."

John seemed to use that time to open the door behind him and slam it shut behind him. Virgil got up to chase him down but decided it was pointless. John still held a few running records at his school and even with space-lag could outrun everyone on the island. He hit his head against the door with the acknowledgement of how much blackmail material John just picked up. Virgil took comfort in the fact that at least Scott was using the grill next to the pool tonight.


End file.
